Lasers and supermassive black holes

Esahubble_potw1801a_1024

esahubble_potw1801a January 1st, 2018

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

This image, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescopes Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), shows a galaxy named UGC 6093. As can be easily seen, UGC 6093 is something known as a barred spiral galaxy it has beautiful arms that swirl outwards from a bar slicing through the galaxys centre. It is classified as an active galaxy, which means that it hosts an active galactic nucleus, or AGN: a compact region at a galaxys centre within which material is dragged towards a supermassive black hole. As this black hole devours the surrounding matter it emits intense radiation, causing it to shine brightly. But UGC 6093 is more exotic still. The galaxy essentially acts as a giant astronomical laser that spews out light at microwave, not visible, wavelengths this type of object is dubbed a megamaser (maser being the term for a microwave laser). Megamasers such as UGC 6093 can be some 100 million times brighter than masers found in galaxies like the Milky Way. Hubbles WFC3 observes light spanning a range wavelengths from the near-infrared, through the visible range, to the near-ultraviolet. It has two channels that detect and process different light, allowing astronomers to study a remarkable range of astrophysical phenomena; for example, the UV-visible channel can study galaxies undergoing massive star formation, while the near-infrared channel can study redshifted light from galaxies in the distant Universe. Such multi-band imaging makes Hubble invaluable in studying megamaser galaxies, as it is able to untangle their intriguing complexity.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1801a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
UGC 6093
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy > Activity > AGN
Esahubble_potw1801a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 11h 0m 47.9s
DEC = 10° 43’ 41.2”
Orientation
North is 12.1° CCW
Field of View
2.6 x 1.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Leo

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Purple Hubble (WFC3) Ultraviolet (u) 336.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (B) 438.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (H) 1.6 µm
Luminosity Hubble (WFC3) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Purple
Blue
Green
Red
Luminosity
Esahubble_potw1801a_1280
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ID
potw1801a
Subject Category
D.5.3.2  
Subject Name
UGC 6093
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2018-01-01T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1801a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
from SIMBAD
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Purple, Blue, Green, Red, Luminosity
Band
Ultraviolet, Optical, Optical, Infrared, Optical
Bandpass
u, B, I, H, I
Central Wavelength
336, 438, 814, 1600, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
165.199510047, 10.728106192
Reference Dimension
3918.0, 2052.0
Reference Pixel
1959.0, 1026.0
Scale
-1.09967763856e-05, 1.09967763856e-05
Rotation
12.140000000000004
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1801a
Metadata Date
2017-06-09T15:02:26+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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